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27 June 2014

Fifa has revealed it was ready to pay Ghana's players their World Cup
bonuses directly and deduct it from the Ghana Football Association's
prize money.

After Ghana's players boycotted training in protest at not receiving their money, the country's government
flew $3m in cash
in a plane to Brazil.

Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke described the situation as "sad".

"The players have the right to receive their money but it would be much easier to do this by bank transfer," he said.

"The fact that the money came in
cash is also sad because I was ready to sign a letter, as long as I had
a copy of the agreement between the national association and the
players, that the money would be paid by Fifa by bank transfer into
their personal accounts.

"Fifa would have made sure to deduct the players' money from the prize money paid to the national association."

While Ghana have now gone home from Brazil, having been
eliminated from the tournament at the group stage, another bonus row is
in full effect with Nigeria.

The Super Eagles, who are due to meet France in the
last 16 on Monday, refused to train on Thursday over fears they would
not receive their bonus payments from the Nigerian Football Federation.

It prompted Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to speak to senior players of the squad on Friday
to give them assurances
the money will be paid.

Even before the tournament there was a similar issue
with Cameroon, whose players refused to board their plane to South
America because of a row over appearance fees. They arrived for the
tournament a day later than scheduled.

The issue is not a new one - Togo went on strike over
bonus money at the 2006 tournament in Germany and Fifa was forced to
intervene.

And Valcke admits that something needs to be done.

"For future World Cups will ask the national
associations to provide us with their agreements with their players to
make sure that this kind of episode does not happen again," he said.